Execution Date Set for Former Wichita Falls Resident

A former Wichita Falls resident, Rosendo Rodriguez III, is set to be put to death by lethal injection next year.

Rodriguez, who grew up in Wichita Falls, was found guilty of capital murder in 2008 for the killing of Summer Baldwin and her unborn child. Rodriguez choked Baldwin to death and stuffed her body into a suitcase, being dubbed the Lubbock Suitcase murder.

Baldwin went missing from her home in May 2004, with Rodriguez being named the primary suspect after investigators discovered the two had recently met online.

Rodriguez also confessed to murdering a 16-year-old Lubbock High School student, Joanna Rogers, and leaving her body in the same landfill he left Baldwin's body in.

As reported by KCBD, Rodriguez's appeal was denied in 2011 by the US Supreme Court. His date of execution has been set for March 27th, 2018.